January 17 – “Galveston Snowpocalypse III”

I sent a text this morning to our worship pastor.  Wanted him to stay inside and not get out into the horrifying sub-30 degree weather today.  It was 25 degrees when I woke up.  Last night we saw plenty of sleet, and finally witnessed seventeen snowflakes.  That's the third time this winter we have seen actual snow.  It was quite difficult to count them all, though.  They were being pummeled and tossed and whipped through the air by the torrential winds (Can winds be torrential, or is that just rain?).  All that was gone when I got up.  It was just still.  Oh, and cold.  So very cold.  It is supposed to slowly climb above freezing by noon, but just barely.  Here’s the transcript of our text series:

Me: “Galveston Snowpocalypse III – no meetings.  Even the bug guy canceled.”

Jim: “?”  (Actually, his question mark was inside a little box.  Very cool looking, but I don’t know how to duplicate it)

Me: “Well, to start with, this is Pastor Kelley.  I was born and raised on a small tropical island near the coast of Texas.  It gets cold here when the thermometer reads 60 or so.  Anything below 40 is a crisis.  Below 30 is a catastrophe.  That said … check your thermometer.  The guy who sprays for roaches canceled his appointment to spray at Seaside because it was just too cold.  You can’t argue with the bug guy.  We won’t be meeting at the church today.”

Jim: “Now where I’m from it’s just another early spring morning.  But I guess I am getting weak in my age.” (Note: He’s from way up north … Oklahoma)

Me: “Be careful.  Liking the cold almost makes you a Yankee around here.”

I think Jim would have less occasion to use his little question mark in a box if he would just make me one of his contacts so he would know who the text is from (I really do want to know how he makes that, though).  Then he could just skip straight to the thumbs up or even the wide grin happy face emoticon that he finally closed out the conversation with. 

Psalms 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be afraid?”

Father, thank you for the cold weather.  It cleans out the bugs and allergens and gives us a great reason to appreciate the warm weather we enjoy most of the year. Amen.